Bomb Gaza app taken down following complaints

A mobile phone app which invited players to drop bombs on Gaza from an Israeli military plane has been removed from Google Play following complaints.

'Bomb Gaza' which instructs users to "drop bombs and avoid killing civilians" was reportedly downloaded around 1,000 times before it was pulled.

It was uploaded to the app store under the name of developer PlayFTW on Thursday but was met with outrage by Google Play users, calling the game "sick" and "disgusting" for mimicking the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.

The app, which appears to still be available to play on Facebook, shows a plane continuously flying over "Gaza" above cartoon images of militants and civilians.

A Google spokesman confirmed the app had been removed from its store.

He said: "We don't comment on individual apps, but will remove apps that breach our guidelines."

One comment posted on the Google Play review section said: "Utterly shameful. Real people, many of them children, are dying in Gaza ... Shame on the creators of this game, and those who 'play' it."

Another comment on the Facebook page read: "This is sick. You should be ashamed to have created such an app. Do you really think it's a game?"